Dev

Silverlight 5 is out!

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It’s a really big pleasure for me to announce that Silverlight 5 is finally available:

https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

Links

The Silverlight 5 Toolkit was also updated to support the RTM: https://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/78435 

And don’t forget to have a look to my blog about all the new features of the toolkit: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/eternalcoding/archive/2011/12/10/silverlight-toolkit-september-2011-for-silverlight-5-what-s-new.aspx)

 

And of course, Babylon was updated for the RTM too: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Babylon-3D-engine-f0404ace

 

For all the downloads and the features list, please go to: https://www.silverlight.net/learn/overview/what’s-new-in-silverlight-5

Security and 3D

First of all, please read this article: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/eternalcoding/archive/2011/10/18/some-reasons-why-my-3d-is-not-working-with-silverlight-5.aspx

By the way, you may experience security errors with Silverlight 5 RTM when you want to use the wonderful new 3D feature. In fact, some graphics drivers may allow malicious code to execute. That may lead to an unwanted hard reset or a blue screen.

Starting with the beta version, to protect users for this kind of trouble, we initiate a first scenario where all Windows XP Display Driver Model (XPDM) drivers on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 will be blocked by default. Permission will be granted automatically in elevated trust scenarios and Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) drivers will not require user consent at run-time.

But as always, features, including security features, continue to be refined and added during post-beta development.

And for the RTM version, there were a number of approaches considered to further improve security and stability, but the solution to block 3D in partial trust by default was the best option for this release. Permission is still granted automatically in elevated trust scenarios.

To grant 3D permissions, you just have to right click on your Silverlight plugin, go to the Permissions tab and allow your application:

 

You can of course help your users detect and understand this by using the following code in order to tailor an good user experience:






  1. if (GraphicsDeviceManager.Current.RenderMode != RenderMode.Hardware)


  2. {


  3. switch (GraphicsDeviceManager.Current.RenderModeReason)


  4. {


  5. case RenderModeReason.GPUAccelerationDisabled:


  6. throw new Exception(Strings.NoGPUAcceleration);


  7. case RenderModeReason.SecurityBlocked:


  8. throw new Exception(Strings.HardwareAccelerationBlockedBySecurityReason);


  9. case RenderModeReason.Not3DCapable:


  10. throw new Exception(Strings.HardwareAccelerationNotAvailable);


  11. case RenderModeReason.TemporarilyUnavailable:


  12. throw new Exception(Strings.HardwareAccelerationNotAvailable);


  13. }


  14. }




It is really important to explain your users why the 3D is deactivated. As there is a potential security hole, it is their responsibility to allow 3D experience.

Support and lifecyle

The support status for Silverlight is now updated for SL5:

https://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean45#sl5

Here is the extract for Silverlight 5:

“Silverlight 5 – Microsoft will provide assisted and unassisted no charge support for customers using versions of Silverlight 5. Paid support options are available to customers requiring support with issues beyond install and upgrade issues. Microsoft will continue to ship updates to the Silverlight 5 runtime or Silverlight 5 SDK, including updates for security vulnerabilities as determined by the MSRC. Developers using the Silverlight 5 development tools and developing applications for Silverlight 5 can use paid assisted-support options to receive development support.

Silverlight 5 will support the browser versions listed on this page through 10/12/2021, or though the support lifecycle of the underlying browsers, whichever is shorter. As browsers evolve, the support page will be updated to reflect levels of compatibility with newer browser versions.”